When I moved to the Valley in 1992, the Phoenix Suns and Cardinals were the only major-league sports shows in town. The Suns annually sold out America West Arena and tickets were even hard to come by from scalpers. But once the Suns stopped being perennial division leaders, attendance has sagged. The Cardinals, never able to field a winner, play to a half-empty Sun Devil Stadium game after game. When the Coyotes, came to town, they had their own problems. Playing their home games in AWA, an Arena built for basketball not hockey, fans soon found that not everyone gets a full view of the ice. This, coupled with continual first round departures from the playoffs has kept attendance low.

But the Diamondbacks are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what the situation is with their fans. They came to town in 1998 and although they didn't meet initial expectations of a winning season, the team drew well. Yet the next season, one that saw the D-backs win 100 games, attendance was well down from their opening season. Finishing 3rd in 2000, they saw attendance drop again despite a hard fought pennant race and a lineup of high-priced talent - a combination that should have filled Bank One Ballpark for much of the season.

It seems as though the Valley of the Sun may not be the sports hotbed that many thought it would be. I don't agree. I think the problems run deeper than this generality. As my cat, Cool Pawed Luke, would say, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." Let's take a look at the sports history at the major league level here in the Valley.

First you have Jerry Colangelo's Suns. And that's all you had for many years. No knock against Jerry, he went out of his way to make the Suns a winner. Unfortunately, the Valley fans became used to winning. They never learned how to support a losing club like fans in other cities. Suns fans never learned how to watch a game and gain enjoyment from concentrating on the little things, the game within the game. They could never bring themselves to watch a team that didn't uphold their expectations of winning. Charles Barkley didn't come to Phoenix because he was a sport's character, a man who gave fans and writers something to talk about other than the gloomy prospects of their team (read Philadelphia). He didn't come to Phoenix as an entertainment value that would increase attendance either. No, Barkley came to the Suns to deliver that long sought after championship. The "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" attitude became entrenched in the Valley long before Barkley showed up, however.

Before football arrived in Arizona, the fans filled the void by watching TV games broadcast nationally from other nearby cities (read Dallas). This fed the popular idea that only winning teams deserve support. Over the years, Dallas built a hefty fan base in the Valley.

Enter the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals. No consistent winner here, not even close. It took 13 years for the Cardinals to get this community to build them the stadium they were promised when they moved here from St. Louis. The Cards had two strikes against them before they played their first game. One - they weren't winners. Two - they fell victim to another Arizona phenomenon - the displaced fan.

The greater majority of people living in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tempe area come from somewhere else. Most of them come from the cold weather states in the North. This is especially true in the winter months when the Cardinals play football. The Valley of the Sun is inundated with "snowbirds" that grace the Valley with their presence from September to March. Although they bring an economic lift to the Valley, they are NOT fans of Arizona professional sports teams. They are homers, fans of teams who have long traditions in the city from which these fans hail. So when the Cards opened up shop, the fans came to see their hometown heroes, that is the heroes from their old hometowns of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Washington, Cleveland, Chicago, etc., etc. This, coupled with the heavy Dallas support in the area, meant that on any given Sunday, the opposition had more fans in the stands than the Cardinals.

The NFL added to this problem by keeping the Redbirds in the NFL East, along with the teams from New York, Washington, Philadelphia and Dallas, who the forlorn Cardinals must play two times each year, once at home and once away. If you're counting, that's half the season. Since the Cards have a hard time winning, the local fans support their old teams in the NFL East, each of which has won at least one division championship since the Cardinals moved here.

Then the area got very, very lucky. Major League Baseball awarded a franchise to the Valley of the Sun and the Arizona Diamondbacks were born. Of course the first thing owner Jerry Colangelo did was promise the fans a winner in their inaugural season. They came up somewhat short. Colangelo threw a large wad of money at the problem and saw his team win 100 games but lose in the 1st round of the playoffs the next year. Last year, Colangelo again threw a large sum of money at the problem, came up with the steal of all steals in acquiring pitcher Curt Shilling from the Phillies, and finished 3rd in the NL West for his efforts. The fans didn't fill the park as the Snakes, although winning, didn't win enough.

There are two other problems in the Valley that cost the local teams fan support and that's where the communication problem rears it's head. First, the Arizona Republic has to have one of the worst sports sections of any major metropolitan newspaper in the country. They don't have a clue. On any given day, anything will get more ink and better placement than the local pro sports teams. They seem to miss the concept that a good sports section helps educate and build a solid fan base and that a knowledgeable fan base sells newspapers.

To give you an idea what I mean concerning the Republic, yesterday baseball great Willie Stargell passed away and football great Troy Aikman retired. The Philadelphia Inquirer ran 3 stories about Stargell, one by their excellent columnist, Claire Smith and two others by staff writers Bob Brookover and Jim Salisbury. The story on Aikman was also written by a staff writer, Mike Bruton. In the Republic, both stories were covered by Associated Press releases. The stories in the Inquirer were in depth, emotional, informative and full of personal insights concerning both stars. The AP stories were dry, factual and uninteresting as usual.

The second problem is even more frustrating. I'm talking about the 3 local sports-talk radio stations in town. I grew up listening to WIP610 in Philadelphia, where they served up a 24-hour venue of Philadelphia area sports talk. Key were the Phillies, the Eagles, the Flyers, the 76ers. Local college teams received play also, but not as much as the professional sports in the area. There was NEVER talk about teams from other parts of the country unless it was national news or they were coming to play a Philadelphia team.

Part of the reason for this is that Philadelphia fans are rabid. They want to talk Philadelphia sports. The other side of the coin is that the microphone jockeys know enough to play to that. Even if a host was from another city, they'd come in to WIP and talk Philadelphia sports. If they didn't they'd be gone in short order. I have to admit, I was a bit spoiled.

Here in Arizona though, flip on the sports radio shows and you'll hear more talk about New York and Chicago teams than our own. When these gentlemen do get around to mentioning our pro clubs it's only to talk about how they're not winning. Without doubt New York teams get top billing. Second billing goes to "babes" talk, as if to be a knowledgeable sports fan in Arizona one must be a stereotypical male pig who salivates at the mention or sight of pretty women.

On WIP610 there was always more chatter about the football Eagles and baseball Phillies than the basketball or hockey teams. Even during the off-season. That only makes sense as pro football and baseball have more fans than basketball or hockey. In Arizona, it's exactly opposite. Basketball, hockey and even golf get more on-air time out here.